Rowan made Brian lunch today today for Father's Day...
Then, Ian made him dinner...
But the finishing Father's Day touch tonight...was Rowan's pie recipe...
Rowan made up this pie recipe up while he was in the hospital earlier this month. We were watching Food Network at the time. I thought it was adorable, especially since this kid can barely eat anything at all himself. He was so excited though. So, he and I wrote all of his ingredients down in a journal that his friend Andres had just brought him in the hospital. It was 100% Rowan's ideas and ingredients. He drew a picture and said that he would only put pecans ("PC") on half, "in case everyone doesn't like nuts", and because he can't eat them himself. Since he can't have pie crust, but can have potatoes, he decided to thinly slice potatoes and dip them in cinnamon sugar, so he could make up his own special type of crust. He can't eat eggs or butter or any dairy, so he decided to use pure cultured coconut 'yogurt' to bind the ingredients. As for the fruit, we let him try fruit in moderation, it just doesn't usually go well gi wise, but is not nearly as bad as protein. Regardless, I had to let Rowan make this pie. I wasn't sure how it would taste, and it didn't exactly stay together as a perfect piece of pie, but what we will always remember about this Father's Day 2015 is that Rowan sat at the kitchen table once his pie was in the oven, and cried happy tears...real ones. He just couldn't believe that he wrote his first recipe, prepped it, cooked it, and more importantly that Dad and Ian ate it...ALL! And you know what, it actually tasted amazing! Everyone cleaned their plates. Here are the pictures of Rowan making this pie (which I'm pretty sure will soon be in many of our recipe files:)
This picture below is the bottom cinnamon sugar potato crust, cooked in olive oil...
Here is the filling, made up of granny smith apples, peaches, raisins, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cultured coconut "yogurt", 1/2 topped with pecans...
Look at the joy and pride in his face. This is one of God's greatest gifts to our sweet Rowan...not just contentment, despite his circumstances, but sheer joy and pure happiness, with his circumstances!
Talk about making the most of things. Rowan has been tube and iv fed for 8 1/2 of his nearly 9 years, only drinking water and lemonade, only eating potato, sugar candy and very limited fruit for nearly 9 years. He has never had meat, cheese, milk, dairy, crust, pie, cake, cupcakes, real pancakes, real waffles, nuts, butter, and many more foods that we all take for granted. His oral diet mainly consists of baked potatoes, hash browns or french fries. He tries a fruit here and there. And sucks on dumdums or smarties for something sweet. That is pretty much it. Everything else goes in through his g-tube, j-tube, or the intravenous central line in his chest. It sounds like a strict diet that some of us may only be able to stick to for a week or two, but this is Rowan's life. He dreams of tasting bacon. He cried when I discovered a potato pancake recipe that did not involve eggs or milk. Prior to that, he simply asked me in wonderment..."Do you think I'll get to taste pancakes in Heaven?" Imagine my heartbreak, and then imagine the immense joy I felt when I finally found a mix that only included potato flour and potato starch, which I could mix with just water instead of milk and eggs. This child, this amazingly content, happy child, cried tears of joy when I gave him his very first plate of "pancakes". Oh, how I wish we could all be so content... and please know that I am not judging...no, believe me,I myself am definitely included. I learn from the joy and honest faith in this child's eyes every single day...
Talk about humble pie....
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